When the sun has left the earth in lonely darkness, 
and light seeks the hand of sombre shades of matter 
lest all fall into oblivion, 
the mystery by its intensity 
makes you appear an explosion of colour 
born of the meeting 'tween darkness and light. 

Strange spectacle, leaving time behind! 

Floods of light 
give birth and growth to life; 
Floods of sunlight, 
through your rays
I pour forth my forms,
I release the raging elements - 
tempests, storms and whirlwinds!
Light, go cradle my sweet dreams, 
light of enchanting rhyme!

In your mystery
I reach out,
and seize Your substance;
and through the portal of my soul 
I shape You, 
transform You! 

I strive 
for this new communion
between heaven and earth.
Of my dreams I make melodies, 
my other selves, 
mankind, 
creator of life, 
creator of the Gods.

Your silence is my Music... 
Music, 
you spirit me afar, 
bear me away enchanted. 

I hear these harmonies of silence, 
my soul in ecstacy, 
and my breath cut short, 
for all bursts forth in a rainbow of poems 
on the white of the canvas.
...And in my torment, 
I stir together 
sounds and notes, 
tints and shades, 
melodies and colours 
to breathe in this warmth
both human and divine.

In my cosmic vision, 
cosmic creations... 
A cloak woven by rays, 
purer than crystal, 
brighter than the sun... 
eternal youth 
of peerless beauty. 

In my cosmic vision 
where the galaxies end, 
I feel my heartbeats... 
In the silence left by your voice 
I am stunned and lost; 
But my visions are as pure and calm 
as the First Dawn.

Joseph Matar
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Translated from French: K.J.Mortimer